Mix #90: “Screaming In Your Face”

I have been listening to quite a bit of heavy Dubstep recently – the kind that some people deride as “Brostep”. While this style is somewhat controversial, I really like this stuff for being ass-kicking and very energetic. I picked some tracks that alternate between melodic and distorted parts and put together this mix. Nothing special in terms of mixing, but should make a nice car mix.

I think this quote by Rusko sums up the current controversial discussion between Dubstep traditionalists and “Brostep” fans nicely:

“Brostep is sort of my fault, but now I’m starting to hate it, in a way. I kind of took it there, and now everybody else is taking it too far. It’s not heavy metal. I’ve been in America touring for a long time, and even more so, they just want it as hard as you can. They’re like, ‘Rusko, I want you to melt my face off tonight! Play the hardest, hardest, hardest you’ve got.’ I’m like, it’s not about playing the hardest, hardest tracks for an hour and a half, it’s like someone screaming in your face for an hour — you don’t want that. A lot of dubstep fans just come because they want to hear the most disgusting, hard, dirty, distorted music possible, and that’s not what it’s about.” (Rusko)

There are two tracks by Rusko in this mix, and I find the collaboration with Cypress Hill one of the most interesting recent Dubstep productions. I really wouldn’t have expected those two to collaborate, and I had somewhat written off Cypress Hill as a relict of the 90s, but I have to say that “Roll It, Light It” really kicks ass and I am happy to see that they are doing this – there might even be an album coming up.

It’s also interesting to see that Skrillex seems to be working on taking Dubstep back to its roots – Dub was originally a sub-genre of Reggae. Many artists have been working on Dubstep tracks with a Raggae flavor, but those sounded mostly very deep and relaxed while Skrillex’s production is more of a banger.